A nondenominational house of worship employs both live music and heavy use of
video and multimedia to engage and immerse attendees.

Worship service at the Miami Vineyard Community Church. Image courtesy of Eiki International.

By Church Designer Staff

Florida's Miami Vineyard Community Church is neighborhood-focused and offers its congregation a wide range of programs. To help keep its services vibrant in a new sanctuary, the church reports relying on three large video screens that receive their images from three EIP-HDT30 HD widescreen projectors drawn from the catalog of Santa Margarita, Calif.-based Eiki International Inc.

Cape Coral, Fla.-based Creative Sound and Lighting Solutions LLC, an AV design/build firm that handles audio, video, lighting, and acoustics for the commercial and church markets, were contracted to design and implement Miami Vineyard Community Church’s new video display system. Rob Robinson, general manager and co-owner of Creative Sound and Lighting Solutions, managed the project. He discussed the installation and his reasons for deploying the Eiki projectors.

"The church’s senior management wanted a system that offered the flexibility to show all of the content with sharp, detailed images and color that really grabs you."

"Miami Vineyard Community Church’s services are very upbeat and contemporary,” says Robinson. “Their services are a terrific example of how to keep the congregation—both young and old—engaged. Music ranges from hip-hop to jazz and there’s a gospel choir that really keeps the program upbeat. The church uses video extensively to display lyrics, images, live feeds, and a wide assortment of other content. The church’s senior management wanted a system that offered the flexibility to show all of the content with sharp, detailed images and color that really grabs you. These requirements are precisely what led us to select the Eiki EIP-HDT30s.”

Customization through technology

To address the requirements of the project, Robinson and the Creative Sound and Lighting Solutions crew deployed three large screens at the rear of the stage area into a convex shape with the curvature facing out toward the audience. This approach enables members of the congregation to see the displays clearly from all areas of the sanctuary. All three Eiki EIP-HDT30 projectors are positioned approximately 20 feet out from the front of the stage using standard 1.5-inch pipe, which protrudes down about two feet from the ceiling.

When queried about those attributes that made the Eiki EIP-HDT30 widescreen projectors the ideal solution for the project, Robinson offered the following thoughts: “First of all, the projector is extremely reliable ... in terms of its performance and the images it projects with its 7,500:1 contrast ratio, [it's] nothing short of exceptional. Equally important, the projector’s full HD 1080p resolution and 8,000 lumens brightness in this very controlled environment with almost zero ambient light results in picture quality that is absolutely world-class. I should also note that the fans—there are six in each unit—are very quiet. This is an important consideration because when you’re hanging them directly over the congregation, you don’t want them to distract people.”

Customer support

When designing video facilities for a project of this scale, questions inevitably arise. When asked for his thoughts regarding Eiki International’s customer and technical support services, Robinson offered, “As it turns out, I had an issue on launch day, which was a Saturday mind you. Simply put, the construction guys did something that’s just not very good for one of the projectors. With about 45 minutes left before the start of the very first service in the new building, I was on the phone with Steve Rubery, Eiki’s national sales manager. He was extremely gracious. While enjoying his weekend at home, he quickly helped me get the unit back up and running. This level of support is rare these days and I really appreciated his assistance. We have a great relationship because Steve shares our passion and commitment to excellence.”

Robinson offered these closing thoughts: “Since day one, the Eiki projectors at Miami Vineyard Community Church have been nothing short of terrific. Picture quality is first-class and they’ve been absolutely bulletproof. With the EIP-HDT30 projectors, the church now has the image magnification (IMAG) they always wanted and they have been extremely complimentary about their performance. With the addition of these three projectors, Miami Vineyard now has a total of seven Eiki projectors on the premises."